| Nicholas Simon | |
| Birth Date: | 1969 3, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Rockford, Illinois, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Film producer |
| Years Active: | 1995 - present |
| Children: | 1 |
Nicholas Andrew Simon, (born 21 March 1969) known professionally as Nicholas Simon, is a Hungarian-American film producer born in Rockford, Illinois, now currently residing in Bangkok, Thailand.[1] He has been producing feature films, TV series, and commercials in Southeast Asia for two and half decades. For his work on City of Ghosts, A Prayer Before Dawn, , , Simon has gained the title of “Hollywood’s man in Southeast Asia.”[2]
Simon is known for being the founder and managing partner of two production companies, Indochina Productions and Studio Muso.
An American/Hungarian dual national,[1] Simon was born in Rockford, Illinois, and lived on a farm before moving with his family to Beloit, Wisconsin, at the age of three.[2] He attended highschool at Phillips Academy, graduating in 1987, before obtaining a B.A. at Columbia University in 1992, specializing in Asia.[3] [4]
Simon was also an active cycler, participating in the 1985 USCF Junior National Championships, the Phillips Academy Varsity Team from 1986 to 1987, and the Columbia University Team from 1991 to 1993.[5]
In 2020, he acquired the certificate of completion for Stanford University's “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” program.
Simon arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam, via New York City in 1993 with the intent of becoming a journalist. However, he quickly realized he didn't enjoy writing and sought out other jobs.[2] Simon eventually met the producers of Trần Anh Hùng’s Cyclo and helped out on the film in an informal capacity. In the following year, he founded Sud-Est Productions, a production company based in Vietnam. During his time, he serviced production for and co-produced numerous films, the most notable being Matt Dillon’s City of Ghosts. He sold Sud-Est Productions in 2003, and it is now a fully Vietnamese company.[2] [3]
While working as an independent industry consultant, Simon moved to Bangkok with his wife and daughter in 2009.[1] In 2010, he founded Indochina Productions, which provides production services for projects in Southeast Asia. The company initially provided support for Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, but now provides production services in 14 territories throughout Asia.[2] [6] It has since been dubbed by the NYFA as “the only company in Southeast Asia to produce and service big-budget Hollywood studio films and Fortune 500 advertising commercial needs.”[7]
Simon has been the line producer for Indochina Productions on several major feature films, such as Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods and Sam Hargrave’s Extraction, and the executive producer for Indochina Productions on Hong Khaou’s Monsoon and Daniel Roby’s Target Number One.[8] He is also known for his work as a line producer on and as well as on .[9] [10] [11] Upcoming projects include adapting Jon Swain’s River of Time with Lawrence Osborne as the screenplay writer for a feature film,[12] as well as Lawrence Osborne’s own Hunters in the Dark for the big screen.[13] [14] [15]
Simon has been on the board of Luang Prabang Film Festival since 2012 and a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Production Guild UK since 2015.[1] [16] [17]
In 2020, Simon also founded another production company, Studio Muso.[18]
He has been a jurist and panelist at several industry events since 2003.[19] [20] He has also written op-eds for the Thai Enquirer.[21] [22]
| Year | Film | Director | Role | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Cyclo | Trần Anh Hùng | Post-Production Producer/Special Thanks | |
| 1997 | Distant Skies | Thierry Chabert | Line Producer, Vietnam | |
| 2000 | The Vertical Ray of the Sun | Trần Anh Hùng | Line Producer | |
| 2003 | City of Ghosts | Matt Dillon | Associate Producer | |
| 2003 | Step into Liquid | Dana Brown | Line Producer, Vietnam | |
| 2003 | What Alice Found | A. Dean Bell | Executive Producer (uncredited)[23] | |
| 2004 | The Beautiful Country | Hans Petter Moland | Line Producer, Vietnam | |
| 2005 | Rx | Ariel Vromen | Producer | |
| 2010 | Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston | Whitney Sudler-Smith | Producer | |
| 2010 | The Best and the Brightest | Josh Shelov | Producer | |
| 2011 | Michael Bay | Line Producer, Cambodia | ||
| 2012 | Act of Valor | Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh | Line Producer, Cambodia | |
| 2015 | Pan | Joe Wright | Line Producer, Vietnam VFX Unit | |
| 2015 | Kenzhe | Ermek Tursunov | Line Producer, Thailand | |
| 2015 | Joss Whedon/Scott Mahaffie (Second unit) | Line Producer, Bangladesh | ||
| 2017 | Lima | Neill Blomkamp | Line Producer, Thailand | |
| 2017 | Jordan Vogt-Roberts | Line Producer, Vietnam | ||
| 2017 | A Prayer Before Dawn | Jean-Stephane Sauvaire | Producer | |
| 2017/ON HOLD[24] | Hue 1968 | Michael Mann[25] | Co-Producer, Thailand and Vietnam | |
| 2018 | Russo Brothers | Line Producer and Aerial Unit, The Philippines | ||
| 2018 | Les Confins Du Monde | Guillaume Nicloux | Co-Producer and Line Producer | |
| 2019 | Buoyancy | Rodd Rathjen | Production Consultant, Cambodia | |
| 2019 | Russo Brothers | Line Producer and Aerial Unit, the Philippines | ||
| 2019 | Monsoon | Hong Khaou | Executive for Indochina Productions, Vietnam | |
| 2020 | Extraction | Sam Hargrave | Line Producer for Indochina Productions, Thailand and Bangladesh | |
| 2020 | Da 5 Bloods | Spike Lee | Line Producer for Indochina Productions, Vietnam | |
| 2020 | Target Number One | Daniel Roby | Executive for Indochina Productions, Thailand | |
| 2020 | Penguin Bloom | Glendyn Ivin | Executive for Indochina Productions | |
| 2021 | Finding 'Ohana | Jude Weng | Line Producer for Indochina Productions, Thailand | |
| 2021 | Hunters in the Dark | Simon Evan | Co-Producer | |
| 2021 | River of Time | TBA | TBA | |
| 2023(upcoming) | The Symphatizer | Park Chan-Wook | Co-Producer | |
| 2023 | The Creator | Gareth Edwards | Co-Producer | |
| 2023 | Deane's Dynasty | Patrick Carr | Producer, Co-Creator | |
| 2023 | Meg 2 | Ben Wheatley | Line Producer | |
| 2023 | Mandalorian | Jon Favreau | Line Producer, Vietnam - Plate Unit |